The Fall of Haven
by bholley
Summary: Sometimes we fairies don't notice things are getting bad until it's too late. Sometimes despite knowing that something is going down, we chose to ignore it. Then, when it is too late, who will save us when the very best one is gone?
1. Chapter 1

"No…" She mumbled. "You can't be real." Her eyes were glassy and out of focus. "Artemis is at home. With his family." Her eyes were half-lidded now; unblinking. Her body mostly unresponsive and cold. Artemis shook her slim shoulders gently and called her name again. This seemed to wake her a little more. She blinked. "A-Artemis?" She whispered, her words slurred and cracked.

"Yes, Holly. We came for you." He said, not trusting himself to say more without his voice breaking. She was in such a pitiful state, it was hard for once for Artemis to hold back the tide of emotions. Her face was ashen, not only from the dirty cell, but from her debilitating illness. Her clothes were unrecognizable - a bloodstained, torn LEP jumpsuit and one boot. The bare foot was cut and bruised as was the rest of her exposed skin. Her hands were rough, cracked and dry, as were her lips and face. Her hair was torn out in places and smeared with dirt and blood. Artemis felt his anger rise at the sight of her injuries.

"Good." She whispered roughly, and closed her eyes. Her head lolled to one side, revealing a long slash on her neck. Artemis examined it and realized that it stretched down over her shoulder. He gently rolled the elf's tiny body over and was shocked to find evidence of whip lashings. Her jumpsuit was ripped open in half a dozen places and painful cracked scabs oozed blood at the movement. The ground under her body was bloodstained. Reluctant to touch the injuries, Artemis did what he could to make her comfortable until Butler and Foaly arrived. He took off his jacket, balled it up and stuck it under her head. She seemed to be breathing better on her side.

He opened his small backpack and looked at the meager first aid supplies he had brought. Butler had the main supply with him, including sutures and large amounts of gauze and cleansing solution. Artemis had some antibiotic cream, bandaids, and a small bottle of saline rinse. He used his bottle of water and an extra shirt to clean some of the grime off of her face and around the ugly slash on her neck. He was beginning to irrigate the wounds on her back when he heard Butler's heavy footsteps and the clip-clop of Foaly's hooves.

Artemis took a moment to look around the enclosure. It was a typical archaic prison cell, and a very dark one at that. The only light in the room came from the flashlight he had brought with him. The door to the cell was solid and there were no windows. The ceiling was low, even for a fairy dwelling. It seemed more suitable for a doghouse than a dwelling place. She was not chained. The door was only held by a cheap human lock, yet there was no fear of her escaping, not with such horrific whip lashes on her back and with pneumonia. How he wished the acorn he'd brought could help her!

"So this is where they hid her." Foaly muttered darkly. "So old even I didn't know about it. This has to have been a fairy dungeon from 6000 years ago at least." The space was too small for all three rescuers to fit inside. Butler wrapped Holly's limp body in a large clean towel and lifted her out of the prison cell where she had been confined for the past two weeks. They walked down the deserted passageway and out into the rainy Irish afternoon. A short walk brought them to Tara, but they didn't stop there. They did not return to the center of the earth, from whence they came, but instead turned toward a large mansion on a nearby hill. It was the only safe place for them now.

(A/N: This story began as a rogue plot bunny. It seems to be mutating into a mystery fic. A flashback explaining the situation is in your near future.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Haven, LEP Headquarters, Foaly's Lab, 2:00 AM**

The centaur was falling asleep at his many keyboards. He was one of very few in the building, and certainly the only one who was awake. He had been awake for more than 36 straight hours. The reserve officers who were on duty were surely snoring in their bunks by now, waiting for an emergency. There was one elf he knew was awake. Holly had been sent to the surface on a recon mission of an old fairy fort. There had been excessive human activity in the area and she had been sent to make sure the fort was secure and to update some security features. She was riding a flare at the moment. Foaly's head drooped lower still, a partially eaten carrot falling from his fingers as his body relaxed into sleep.

He knew not how long he slept, but he was awakened sharply by a loud beeping from the computer in front of him. Startled, he jerked upright, grumbling at the computer. He froze when he saw the cause of the sound. Holly's vitals had popped up onto the screen. Her heart rate was twice the normal rate and she seemed to be running - fast. Foaly quickly patched into her headset.

"Holly! What's going on?"

"Foaly!" he was relieved to hear her voice, although she sounded winded. "Goblins! With mudman guns!" She gasped for breath then grunted as a shot rang out. "They were in the fort." She was talking quickly now, still running. Foaly could hear the shouts of goblins in the background now. "They're with…" she gave a cry of pain as another shot rang out. "Opal." She gasped and fell to her knees. "Foaly, they have plans to take over Haven! Warn everybody! Warn Artemis!" She choked, presumably on her own blood. "It's starting." She rasped, then Foaly heard a muffled thud as her body hit the ground.

Just then, every alarm in the LEP building and in the whole city of Haven went berserk. Within 30 minutes, the takeover was complete. It was as if agents were hidden throughout the entire city and at one signal, they all took over at once. How could they have been undetected? Especially the ones in the LEP building! Foaly however had much more pressing matters. For one thing, he was now piloting a tiny pod toward the surface of the earth. Immediately after he realized there was no hope for retaliation, he had escaped to his emergency pod and headed toward Tara. He had to warn Artemis.

**Fowl Manor, Artemis's room, 2:30 AM**

Artemis was in a deep sleep. He had spent the whole day working on a new technology project that would revolutionize the world of semiconductors. The experiment had, unfortunately, damaged a large portion of the basement when some excess cesium had come into contact with a cup of water. It hadn't ended well, and now Artemis was sleeping off the effects of light shock and minor burns. At least he wouldn't have to shave his face. Ever.

He was woken from his sleep when his ring began to ring. The irony was completely lost upon the boy as he was jolted from his slumber. Three people had the potential to contact that ring. One was asleep in his room in the house, or else patrolling the grounds. One should be in the tech lab in the LEP headquarters building, and the third could be anywhere above or below the earth, but it she called him it would mean something huge was happening. He twisted the ring and held it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Artemis!" the boy in question winced and held the ring away from his head as the loud braying voice assaulted his ears.

"Foaly! What happened?" he asked, instantly knowing something was wrong by the way the centaur was panting. Foaly never ran. If he was running, it must be apocalyptic. Artemis listened in increasing concern as he quickly got dressed, still listening to the centaur relay what little information he had.

"Where are you now?" Artemis asked, sliding his feet into loafers and making his way to Butler's room.

"Where do you think?!" The centaur brayed, agitated. "I'm in the forest outside Tara hiding from goblins. I'm in a tree!" Artemis's eyes widened astronomically. He decided against asking the frustrated centaur exactly how he managed to get into a tree and opted to wake Butler. The man was awake and fully dressed when Artemis opened the door. He simply nodded at his charge and followed him to the first floor meeting room.

"Stay put if you can, Foaly." The boy said, trying to be reassuring but failing miserably in that aspect. "We're coming." He looked at Butler, who nodded, retrieving the keys for the Bentley. "Yes, we have adequate equipment. We will be there shortly. What is your GPS location?" The two walked quickly into the garage. "ETA… 15 minutes. Hang on Foaly." Artemis said and terminated the link.

"Haven has been taken over by Opal and an army of goblins, pixies, sprites and trolls." Artemis said as the Bentley roared out of the Fowl Estate. "Foaly escaped and he is approximately 2 miles outside the Tara shuttle-port. There are hostiles patrolling the area, so I brought neutrinos and mindwiping equipment." Butler nodded, turning toward Tara. "They attacked Holly. She spotted them in an old fairy fort, executing the final stages of the takeover plan. She didn't get away." Artemis said, worry evident in his voice. "Foaly doesn't think they killed her." Butler's eyebrows raised.

"We must find her, then." He said, stopping the car at the entrance to a forest path. They both donned night vision goggles and with neutrinos in hand, strode into the forest. It didn't take long for them to find Foaly. The GPS coordinates were accurate, and they met no goblin patrols. It took considerable effort for Butler to remove Foaly from the tree. They quickly returned to the Bentley and made their way to Fowl Manor.

**Fowl Manor, Meeting Room, 4:00 AM **

"The last contact I have with her equipment is 3.6 miles, 30 degrees NE of Tara." Foaly said, reading from a small plasma screen on his hairy wrist. "She was under fire, and presumably shot twice with mudman firearms." He said, a nervous look on his face. "She was running hot, but gunshot wounds take a lot of magic to heal. If they shot her any more than that, she would be hard pressed to have survived."

Artemis nodded. "Tomorrow, in daylight, we will have to investigate the area. Perhaps the patrols will not be so frequent with more humans around. It will be St. Patrick's day, so I expect there will be a multitude of other humans to mix with."

"What about the manor?" Foaly cut in. "Certainly this will be Opal's next target." Artemis nodded.

"You don't know my defenses, dear friend. I have been busy since we last met. If your DNA hadn't been on the list of permitted fairies, you would have been automatically tranquilized, tagged, and shielded until Butler or Juliet could retrieve you. I also have a missile shield that not only deflects incoming missiles, both human and fairy, but reflects them back to where they came from. The walls are not mere stone, but sensor-laden blast shields that extend 25 feet down through the soil and into bedrock." Foaly simply nodded appreciatively.

"Where is your family?" Foaly asked nervously as the sky outside began to lighten.

"They went to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Juliet went with them, unfortunately." The boy said. "She would have been most helpful in this situation. Perhaps I will request that she return tomorrow."

"Where is the location of the fairy fort?" Butler asked Foaly. "I presume the goblins would have taken Holly back to Opal once they had captured her."

"It's on the edge of the forest you found me in," Foaly said, "but in the opposite direction. It borders a pasture. If I were to accompany you, I would have to masquerade as a horse." Artemis smirked.

"I suppose so," he replied, amusement evident in his eyes, "but I need all the information you can give me about this fort. Everything will be important if she is indeed being held there."

Foaly tried to access the database, but received only error messages.

"They've blocked everything coming in and out of Haven." He said, sourly. "Do you have an old LEP helmet? If one of them was Holly's, it probably has data from the fort because it was in occasional use at the time, and the Tara shuttleport was in her patrol range at the time." The three went down to the basement, where Artemis kept his secret technology. Foaly managed to retrieve some data from one of the helmets.

"This must have been hers." Foaly said, handing the helmet back to Artemis after extracting the data. "It has everything we need." Artemis looked down at the small oblong shape that once encased his best friend's head. He wished suddenly that she were wearing it instead of it lying in his hand, empty. He led Butler and Foaly to his computer lab to look at the information and devise a plan to rescue Holly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Fairy Fort Dungeon, 8 AM**

Holly slowly regained consciousness in the half-light of the room where she lay. Her head felt like it was on fire. She tentatively moved her fingers and toes, slowly working up to her shoulder, where she had last been shot. The wound was almost completely healed, with only a patch of raw skin over the entrance and exit holes. She was completely out of magic. She slowly reached a hand up to the back of her head and felt her short hair matted and stuck to her scalp with dried blood. She tried to look around her, but her surroundings were dark and she felt dizzy. She rolled onto her back and sat up gingerly, stopping when her forehead brushed against a very low ceiling. She lay back down, unable to discern anything in the darkness. She groped for her communicator, locator, anything to light her way or at least tell her where she was, but all of her things had been taken from her.

A nearby door slammed open suddenly and a dim light illuminated the tiny cell in which she was housed. Two large gnomes grabbed her by the arms and drug her out and into a dimly lit passageway. Dizziness disoriented Holly and she stumbled, only to be roughly hauled up a staircase by the two gnomes. They walked along another corridor in silence and entered a large chamber. Holly suddenly recognized it as the chamber she had seen Opal planning the takeover of Haven. How long it had been she didn't know. She could only hope that Foaly had gotten word to Artemis. The centaur and the mud boy were the only ones who could help her now.

The gnomes tied her tightly to a chair and left the room. A figure sitting in an oversized office chair caught her attention. The chair swiveled around and Holly found herself looking at Opal Koboi, once again. Holly rolled her eyes.

"Could you get any more clichéd Opal?" She asked. The pixie scowled.

"This is anything but cliché, elf. True, my last attempt to take over Haven failed miserably, but this is a much better plan. There are no goblins involved this time, and Haven has already fallen!" Opal cackled shrilly, and Holly felt a pounding headache turn into a migraine as she stood there.

"Artemis will stop you. He always has before," she said with more courage than she felt.

"He can't stop me if he knows nothing about it!" she crooned. "Arty is at home, completely oblivious to your situation. There's no way he can know about this. We even have that centaur in chains." Holly's heart sank at this news, but she didn't completely lose hope. Opal was known for her morale-breaking lies. She had learned that well enough the day Julius Root died.

"What do you want from me?" Holly asked, not really knowing what to say.

"I don't want anything from you…" Opal said, her face breaking into an evil smile. "I just want to see you die slowly." Holly rolled her eyes, but inside she was shuddering. No one knew where she was and no one was coming to help her. How could she possibly survive?

"It begins right now!" Opal said, cackling with glee and stepping down from her chair and toward the elf, holding an oversized gun in her hand.

"Do you know what this is?" She asked, waving it in front of Holly's face. The elf did not respond.

"It's a softnose rifle. A new one." She cackled with glee and looked at the weapon proudly. "I made it myself." Then she aimed the gun at Holly's feet and fired. The high powered lasers burned through the jumpsuit material and burned her legs, causing her to wince in pain. It also burned through the bonds on her legs and she lashed out a strong kick to Opal's shins. The pixie fell hard, cursing, while Holly stood up, grimacing in pain, still tied to the chair, and body-slammed Opal into the ground. The chair legs landed on the gun and it shattered into a thousand pieces, laser beams scattering like ritual sparks across the floor and onto Opal's clothes, which promptly caught on fire. Holly rolled off of the pixie and struggled with her remaining bonds. If only she could get free and grab that neutrino across the room, she would be certain to escape…

Opal cursed and called for her guards. They ran in and one punched Holly square in the face, stunning her. They set her chair back upright and tied her even more tightly than before. Holly felt the ropes digging cruelly into her wrist and ankles, cutting off circulation and almost drawing blood. A red trail of blood dribbled down her face from a cut inside her mouth. The pixie, with the help of the other guard, had extinguished her clothes but was smoldering slightly. She glared at Holly with a deep rage.

"You will die ever so slowly for that." Opal spat. "We will take your magic. No acorn will be able to help you now." She shot a dart that stuck in the elf's shoulder. Within seconds, Holly felt empty inside. Incredibly empty.

"The acorn around your neck can't save you now," Opal said, smirking. She ordered the guards to take Holly back to the cell. She was untied, fortunately, but the door to the cell was locked tightly. In the darkness, Holly tried to examine the damage to her lower legs and feet. Some parts were bleeding slightly, but it wasn't unbearable. She felt around her mouth with her tongue for broken teeth and skin, but the bleeding had stopped, even though she could still taste the saltiness of her blood. Her face was swelling up. She groaned and lay down on her side and fell asleep.

**Later that day…**

Holly was woken from a fitful sleep by two guards dragging her out of the cell. Her feet burned from the laser blast but she hobbled along with the guards to a different room. She found, not surprisingly, Opal standing in the middle of what appeared to be a torture chamber. The pixie had a maniacal grin on her face and she was holding a long whip. The two guards chained her by the wrists to a metal post in the middle of the floor. This time Opal didn't spare a single word in taunting, but began to whip Holly mercilessly. The whip was made in a human scale and tore ridiculous amounts of flesh from the elf's back with every stroke.

After what seemed to be ages to the elf, the beatings finally stopped. Holly knelt, trembling, her forehead against the cool metal of the pole she was chained to. She felt like throwing up but there was nothing in her stomach. Suddenly, a bucked of rubbing alcohol splashed against her back, eliciting a scream of agony as her wounds stung unbearably. Her muscles spasmed from the pain and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Little did she know that this was only the beginning.

Holly knew not how long the tortures lasted. Three days? A week? Two weeks? She had been whipped almost every time, beaten heavily, and cut with knives. She was also soaked in cold water and left chained in a drafty area. From this she quickly contracted pneumonia. That was a form of torture in itself as coughing caused the wounds on her back to reopen and bleed. It also hurt her bruised ribs. She felt that death would be merciful at this point. She had lost all hope. If Artemis hadn't found her within a week, there was no way she could ever be rescued. Foaly was captured and Haven had been overtaken.

One day, while lying very still in the tiny cell, she heard a commotion outside. She cursed, thinking that the guards were returning for another torture session. Instead, several guards ran by, talking about getting to Haven as fast as they could. Opal was shouting orders. From what Holly could tell, Haven was revolting and Opals followers needed her below ground. It was apparently a crisis of astronomical proportions, because Opal would have taken Holly with her to kill her in front of the people of Haven as an example. Instead, Holly was faced with the looming silence of the empty fairy fort, as she was left to die.

As she lay, gasping for breath and shivering, she became dehydrated and delirious. She saw hallucinations of Artemis and Foaly and Butler. She saw Julius Root and her parents, and even Mulch Diggums. The visions were never real and this served to discourage her even further. She lay in the cell, drifting in and out of consciousness, dying slowly and completely alone.

**Deserted Tara Shuttleport**

Artemis frustratedly scratched another place to investigate off of his list. It had been a week and a half since Foaly had appeared, asking for help. It had been a week since Holly had been captured and there had been no sign of her or her captors. They had scoured the fort, finding nothing, and then the surrounding area in a radius of three miles with no sign of her.

"Let's retrace her steps again," Foaly suggested. "Back to where she first saw Opal."

The three had examined the room previously, but had found no evidence that they had brought Holly back there. They had found some darts filled with what Foaly determined was a magic inhibitor, but that was the only evidence they found that Holly might be in the vicinity. Foaly sensed something strange when he was in the room though, and was determined to investigate. Artemis was beginning to feel it too. He carefully examined the walls, muttering "Opal Koboi" under his breath. Suddenly, a wall panel beeped.

"Code accepted," it said robotically, and opened into a long dark corridor.

"Butler, I think you should get the medical supplies," Artemis said, noting a trail of dried blood on the floor, leading down into the darkness. "I will investigate."

After peering down the straight hallway and finding no obvious dangers, Butler agreed to let Artemis go down, but made him bring a neutrino and a handgun to be safe. Butler and Foaly returned to the nearby Bentley to retrieve a medical kit.

"We should bring a blanket to cover the body," Foaly said, barely holding back his tears. "The whole place smells of death." Butler nodded mutely, handing a folded fleece blanket to the centaur.

Artemis cautiously made his way down the darkened hallway, peering into each cell at a time. He used the trail of blood as a guide and ended up at a small low cell. He got to his knees and examined the door. It had a new lock on it and looked like it had been recently used. He easily picked the lock and opened the solid door. A small shape stood out against the black of the cell. Artemis crawled forward.

Holly lay unconscious on her back. Her breathing was shallow and wheezing.

"Oh Holly," Artemis murmured, taking in her injuries. He knelt over her still body and put a hand on her face. She was so cold. He put a hand gently on her shoulder and said her name. She made a small sound in her throat but didn't respond otherwise. He tried again, shaking her slightly. She opened her eyes. They seemed almost gray in the dim light. She barely responded, mumbling something barely intelligible. Her eyes were falling shut again.

"Holly!" He said urgently, shaking her gently.

"A-Artemis?" She asked, her voice cracked and dry. Her eyes focused slightly. He stroked her face and murmured what he hoped were soothing words. He was close to tears.

"It's okay now. We came for you," he said. She looked relieved, as if finally believing that he was real. She closed her eyes again. Artemis began to tend to her injuries, particularly an ugly slash on her neck and the whip lashes on her back. Butler and Foaly soon arrived. Foaly seemed surprised to find that she had survived for so long. They wrapped her gently in a fleece blanket and Butler carried her out to the Bentley.

Foaly sat awkwardly, taking up the entire back seat, while Butler drove. Artemis sat in the passenger seat, awkwardly cradling his unconscious friend. She seemed so tiny, wrapped in the blanket like a baby. Artemis felt her trembling and he held her close to his body, hoping to transfer some heat to his friend. They soon arrived at Fowl Manor, and Artemis reluctantly placed Holly's bundled up body into Juliet's waiting arms. The girl was unusually solemn, and had been waiting vigilantly since she'd received Butler's call that they had found Holly. After her wrestling tour, Juliet had decided to go through a first aid and emergency response course. She was the one designated to clean and bandage the elf when she arrived.

Juliet carried the little bundle into a bathroom she had set up expressly for this purpose. There was a low examination table beside the bathtub and needles and sutures sterilized and ready to be used. Juliet laid Holly's unconscious body down on the table and gently unwrapped her from the blanket. She shook her head and drew a shallow warm bath for the elf. Meanwhile, Holly was beginning to stir. Juliet gently injected a sedative into Holly's arm, and she soon lay still again. Juliet cut the stiff and bloody jumpsuit off of the elf's body. She gently removed some parts that were stuck to the body with blood, especially on her back. Juliet examined the bruises that covered the little body. Holly was emaciated now. Extreme dehydration and being without food for a week and a half had taken their toll on the already slim elf.

Juliet gently lowered Holly into the warm water, which quickly turned pinkish red from the blood on her body. Using a mild soap, Juliet scrubbed the dirt, grime and dried blood from the elf's body. She continually ran clean water into the tub to keep rinsing. Once she was clean, Juliet took Holly out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel. She began attending to her head. Some of her hair had to be shaved off to bandage the wounds on the back of her head. The slash on her neck had to be stitched, as did several of the deeper cuts on her back. Juliet used an entire tube of antibiotic cream on the tiny body and she ended up wrapping gauze all the way around her torso, including her shoulders.

Once she was done bandaging the wounds, Juliet put Holly on a fluids and antibiotic drip. She found some old sweat pants that had belonged to one of the twins and dressed Holly in those, but found it pointless to put a shirt of any kind on her, as the movement would mess up the bandages on her back. She was pretty much covered up anyway. Her torso was swathed in bandages. Nevertheless, the girl covered the elf in a sheet before wrapping her up in a clean blanket.

She called Artemis, who walked behind her, keeping the bag of fluids elevated while they moved Holly to a cot beside the fireplace. It was the warmest place in the house and there would always be someone there to watch over her. They took turns waiting by her side waiting for the sedative to wear off and gathering information about Opal's magic inhibitor. If they hoped to rescue Haven, they needed Holly to be healthy and they needed to carry the antidote with them to liberate the LEP who were certainly in captivity.


End file.
